Carol Bartz is executive chairman of the board of Autodesk, Inc. Bartz was chairman, president and CEO of Autodesk for 14 years and stepped-down in April, 2006. During her tenure, the company diversified its product line
and grew revenues from $285 million to $1.523 billion in FY06. Bartz previously held positions at Sun Microsystems, 11 years ago serving as vice president of worldwide field operations and an executive officer of the company. Before
joining Sun, she held product line and sales management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M Corporation. Appointed to President Bush's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Bartz is one of a select group of industry
leaders expected to play a key role in shaping and setting the government's high tech agenda-ranging from R&D funding to new broadband incentives. She also serves on the Board of Directors of BEA Systems, Cisco Systems, Network
Appliance, and the Foundation for the National Medals of Science and Technology. Bartz holds an honors degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. She was granted an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the New
Jersey Institute of Technology, an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from William Woods University.

Tina Seelig is the Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program where she is responsible for the management, operations, and dissemination efforts of STVP. In addition, Tina is the Director of the
Stanford Entrepreneurship Network and the co-Director of the Mayfield Fellows Program. Tina also teaches a course in the Department of Management Science & Engineering on Creativity and Innovation. Prior to joining STVP, Tina worked as
an entrepreneur, management consultant, author, and scientist. Tina received her Ph.D. from Stanford University Medical School in 1985 where she studied Neuroscience. Tina has worked as management consultant for Booz, Allen, and Hamilton,
has written several popular science books and has designed a series of educational games. Her books include The Epicurean Laboratory, Incredible Edible Science, and a series called Games for Your Brain. After Tina's first book was
published in 1991, she became interested in how books are marketed. This led her to start a company designed to help match books with buyers. The product was a multimedia system for bookstore customers, called BookBrowser. BookBrowser was
a kiosk-based system that allowed customers to identify books of interest. With the help of a team of engineers and graphic designers, Tina built the business and sold the company in 1993. After selling her business, Tina worked as a
Multimedia Producer for Compaq Computer Corporation. In this position Tina led a team of engineers, artists, scriptwriters, and education specialists through the design and implementation of a series of multimedia titles. Tina's current
position as Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program takes advantage of her technical background, in addition to her experiences as a manager, entrepreneur, and educator.

Katie Rodan, M.D., is the co-developer of Proactiv Solution, a highly successful acne skin care system for adults and teens, launched in 1995. Proactiv Solution continues to monopolize the acne skin care market as it
offers a solution for both treatment and prevention. Proactiv Solution has been used by over three million people, positioning Dr. Rodan in the forefront of acne treatment in the medical community. A well-recognized expert in her field,
Dr. Rodan has been interviewed and quoted in many national magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Self, McCall's, Allure, Teen, Cosmogirl, Oprah, Redbook, Mirabella, Elle and Reader's Digest. She was featured in First Magazine for
Women, "Secrets of the Beauty Docs" (July 1996) and in Harper's Bazaar, "Five Hot Derms" (April 1998). She is a guest medical correspondent for KRON-TV News, the NBC affiliate in San Francisco, and has appeared on national television
shows, such as The Montel Williams Show, Barbara Walters' The View, and Later Today. In addition, Dr. Rodan has been included in Best Doctors in America. Dr. Rodan is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor, Dermatology, Stanford
University School of Medicine. She has a private practice in medical, surgical and cosmetic dermatology in Oakland, CA. Dr. Rodan received her undergraduate degree in history from the University of Virginia and her medical degree from the
University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles. She completed her residency in dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Courtesy of Proactiv Solution

As leader of the Innovent team, Stephanie Keller-Bottom draws upon over 17 years of of executive leadership roles in creating new marketplaces for Fortune 500 companies like Hewlett Packard, Citibank/Citicorp and Visa.
Ms. Keller-Bottom joined Nokia's venturing organization in 1998, the entity charged with corporate renewal and innovation. In 2000, she established Innovent, the entrepreneurial innovation unit within Nokia that explores emerging markets
and the opportunities they create. Prior to joining Nokia, Ms. Keller-Bottom served as Director of Marketplace Creation for Hewlett Packard, where she worked closely with the CEO to utilize innovative approaches in partnership and
collaboration and build market entry strategies for emergent businesses. During her tenure as Director of Consumer Credit Operations for Citibank/Citicorp, she managed consumer credit operations for the California franchise, and then moved
into strategic acquisitions and corporate strategy. While Vice President, E-Commerce Marketing and Product Development for Visa U.S.A., Ms. Keller-Bottom collaborated with top U.S. financial institutions to build strategic plans that
addressed the emergence of the electronic banking marketplace, and digital banking challenges such as risk management and identification, pricing models, digital authentication and identity. Ms. Keller-Bottom's solid understanding of
e-commerce, consumer behavior, digital/electronic marketplaces, and financial services provides a unique and invaluable perspective into the potential diffusion of new technologies and applications in the marketplace, and the role of
innovation and renewal in major corporations. Innovent's portfolio of entrepreneurs leverage her expertise in strategic planning, risk management and market research, to develop the strategies and tactics necessary to build profitable,
customer-focused sales and service organizations Ms. K

Marissa leads the product management efforts on Google's search products- web search, images, groups, news, Froogle, the Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Google Labs, and more. She joined Google in 1999 as Google's first
female engineer and led the user interface and webserver teams at that time. Her efforts have included designing and developing Google's search interface, internationalizing the site to more than 100 languages, defining Google News, Gmail,
and Orkut, and launching more than 100 features and products on Google.com. Several patents have been filed on her work in artificial intelligence and interface design. In her spare time, Marissa also organizes Google Movies- outings a few
times a year to see the latest blockbusters- for 6,000+ people (employees plus family members and friends). Concurrently with her full-time work at Google, Marissa has taught introductory computer programming classes at Stanford to over
3,000 students. Stanford has recognized her with the Centennial Teaching Award and the Forsythe Award for her outstanding contribution to undergraduate education. Prior to joining Google, Marissa worked at the UBS research lab (Ubilab) in
Zurich, Switzerland and at SRI International in Menlo Park, California. Graduating with honors, Marissa received her BS in Symbolic Systems and her MS in Computer Science from Stanford University. For both degrees, she specialized in
artificial intelligence. Courtesy of Google, Bart Nagel

Business owners and their advisers should carefully plan and take appropriate steps to avoid litigation traps in selling their companies, such as not performing due diligence on potential buyers or signing an ambiguous letter of intent without a counsel's review.

This article, published by a law firm, details the major components typically involved in the buying and selling of a company, including the purchase and sale agreement, confidentiality agreement, and letter of intent.

Universities and related organizations are major producers of patentable ideas. For entrepreneurs, the key is effectively working to license and commercialize these innovations. This article lays out a detailed strategy for entrepreneurs who want to commercialize licensed (and patented) technologies.

A network of U.S. cities facilitating a weekly entrepreneur education program. Go to 1 Million Cups >

Whether you are starting or growing a company, FastTrac will help you live your dream at each stage.Go to FastTrac >

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